Testing labs agree to pay $8.5 million to settle US false billing claims

Testing labs agree to pay .5 million to settle US false billing claims

Two Wisconsin labs offering scientifically questionable tests agreed last week to pay $8.5 million to the federal government to settle allegations that they falsely billed Medicare.Pharmasan Labs Inc. and NeuroScience Inc., allegedly used improper codes to bill the federal insurer for ineligible food-allergy tests for five years, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Madison, Wisconsin. The settlement, which also includes the labs’ founders, Gottfried and Mieke Kellermann, stems from a 2013 whistleblower lawsuit by a former employee that the federal government joined last year. The companies neither admitted or denied the allegations. Pharmasan also acknowledged in the settlement that the government could prove the bulk of its lab-test referrals came not from doctors, as is largely required under Medicare, but from ineligible health care providers. Pharmasan offers diagnostic tests for allergies,…